Newsletter 27

The past 24 hours have brought about some drastic developments both on the national and regional level. MENASSAT spoke to a few Lebanon-based journalists and experts to get their views and thoughts on the Doha agreement and the announcement of indirect Israeli-Syrian peace talks.

Footage from camera phones is playing an increasingly important role in reporting events in Lebanon. But if some of the footage qualifies as citizen journalism, other videos merely help to exacerbate sectarian strife.

Some of Lebanon's media players gathered in Beirut on Saturday to discuss media responsibility for the violence which has consumed Lebanon over the last two weeks. But two of the main TV networks, Future and LBC, were conspicuously absent.

Praising his "extraordinary sacrifices," Irish President Mary McAleese on Thursday presented the annual Front Line award to the wife of jailed Syrian lawyer Anwar al-Bunni. Al-Bunni is part of a remarkable family of human rights activists who together have spent more than 60 years in prison.

Finding that the Egyptian press seldom provided independent sources of information or reported issues of interest to young people, a group of young journalists in Cairo decided to start their own radio station. Qantara's Sarah Mersch reports from Egypt.

Saudi Jeans is one of the most influential blogs in the Gulf region. It is run by pharmacy student Ahmad Al Omran, who through his blog hopes to "be a part of the change that is taking place in Saudi Arabia."